Brown Eyes
by yourbeautifulnightmare
Summary: Draco Malfoy, the quiet, stoic and sad young figure who works as a double agent for the Order of the Phoenix, has endured the past eight years for her love only. Unsuspectingly, he finds her in a muggle song that expresses love in lyric.


_Brown Eyes_

The day was drawing to a quiet dusky end as Draco sighed heavily and trudged nearer to the campsite of his fellow Order members – burdened with the weight of his pack and of the pressure of being a double agent for the Order of the Phoenix.

Eight long, painful, trying years had come to pass since Draco graduated from Hogwarts, eight long painful years since Draco had received the Dark Mark which graced Draco's left arm often with lances of pain. These lances of pain, over the past year with the nearing of "the final battle" as they so put it, had increased and while Draco had a particular way of storing the pain away to a far corner of his mind - there were times when Voldemort put all his power into the torture of the Death Eaters' forearms in times of great displeasure or need for his minions to be by him.

The men and women he worked alongside in the Order of the Phoenix were first angry, suspicious and hateful of the traitorous and young Malfoy. Minerva McGonagall had just suddenly presented the thin lanky youth with troubled eyes to them – announcing that it had been Dumbledore's will that Draco be protected and accepted and to play the part of double-crosser to Voldemort.

After the hardhearted acceptance of Albus' will, Draco, at the tender age of seventeen set off to live the next several years of his life in battle, fright and grimness. He spent most of his time around the strongest core of Death Eaters, with Voldemort, witnessing the murders, the rape, the lies and experiencing that potent black power that radiated off the Dark Lord.

Whenever Draco was in contact with the darker circle of witches and wizards, he fervently thanked his father for the one thing he passed onto Draco which saved his life and sanity on many occasions.

The appearance of cold indifference.

Despite feeling like bolting at any sign of danger, retching up stomach acid at the sign of the brutal dismemberments, the itching anger at the lies of Voldemort and that ever-present black dog of unhappiness which tailed Draco wherever he went, it did not show.

Draco showed no weaknesses.

No… Draco kept it all inside, locked a load of anger, sadness and fear within himself – and carried on with the job.

At random intermittent times Draco contacted the Order with a variety of secrecy magic and Order specific code words to pass on information and over the years, members of the Order grudgingly passed on their trust to the strange quiet young blonde man. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid and McGonagall slowly started respecting Draco for what he was doing. In the war, no life was easy, whether you assisted Voldemort or the Order. You risked death by association and Draco lived both lives.

Everyone wondered _why_Draco would stay so faithful to the Order despite Dumbledore's will. Most understood that Voldemort was very much… displeased at Draco's failure to murder Dumbledore, but was that enough for him to turn to the Phoenix?

Essentially there really was only one reason why he stayed…

--+--

Draco would be spending the night with a small section of traveling Order of the Phoenix members in a forest very close to a muggle township. Though he felt a great wave of relief at the internal relaxation he could enjoy when in the Order's company, he remained quiet because she wasn't there to speak with him and to hold him close.

After the Order's evening meal was devoured and members sat about speaking of trivial things they so desperately needed to talk of after hours of planning for the war, Draco heard a larger buzz of voices and the lilting of live music over in the close township. Feeling decidedly and relatively relaxed, Draco obeyed his compulsion to go closer.

He turned to Mad-Eye Moody and softly muttered, "I'm using an invisibility charm and standing by the music."

Mad-Eye's eye swiveled around and around madly and he shrugged his shoulders in acknowledgement and admittedly – surprise. When Draco did ever spend a day or so with the Order, he was always quite silent, simply sitting, listening to the conversation or reading, speaking only when spoken to, replying only when necessary.

Mad-Eye understood the quietness, the stoic air emanating from the young man, for he himself had seen, seen more than he cared for with his magical eye, the deeper, gorier goings-on of Voldemort and the Death Eaters. The only time that Draco showed much sign of life when she was there with that particular group of Order members are that particular time. Suddenly Draco's stoic, depressing demeanour would be then akin to that of many rays of sunshine breaking through a dark cloud, illuminating all that was beautiful.

Talking, smiling, a dash of laughter and human contact – they held hands. When they thought nobody was looking, they touched lips. Mad-Eye Moody didn't need his magical eye to see, Draco burned for her, and she was the gasoline that gladly fueled the fire.

Watching Draco place the invisibility spell on himself and then seeing him through it with his eye, Moody gave an inaudible sigh of regret.

If not for the war… perhaps that happiness would be there on a more regular basis.

--+--

Draco arrived at the township a short six minutes later completely undetected and he stood by the outdoor stage that was cheerily lit with fairy lights and spotlights, contrasting greatly with the darkness of the night. There was an excited crowd milling about, smiling, laughing and enjoying themselves – something Draco frowned to himself about because he did not readily participate in those actions.

A safe enough distance away, Draco paid attention to the way the crowd suddenly hushed dramatically and a man with a guitar sat on a chair with a guitar held close to him suddenly started speaking into a black, almost baton-like contraption that was attached to a stick-like contraption which amplified his voice.

'_Muggle version of the sonorous charm I suppose' _thought Draco absent mindedly, observing how muggles achieved the desired effects they wanted without the aid of magic.

"Gooooooood evening all, good evening. Yes, we are Coldplay and ah, so glad to be back again on this tour, for our new album, 'A Rush Of Blood To the Head.' We'll kick off the evening with one of my favourites with the lull of an acoustic…" the man paused with a small smile while the crowd, young and old, male and female, cheered their approval.

"I will begin…Green Eyes," continued the man with the guitar into the black contraption after the crowd at settled down again. Pausing for yet another wave of hearty approval, the man settled himself comfortably on his chair and began strumming.

Draco stood still and listened to the initial guitaring and savoured the silky feel of sound surrounding him. The man then added his vocals to weave with the sound and Draco gave a little jerk of surprise.

_Honey you are a rock…_

_ upon which I stand._

The uncannily similar way Draco felt about her was being sang in this metaphor, in this town, from this man's imagination and vocal chords.

Unconsciously, Draco inched closer to the crowds, closer to the man who sang about something else Draco also held deep within - that wasn't blinding hate, sorrow, anger or pain.

_I came here with a load…_

_ and it feels so much lighter now I met you._

Draco's heart beat rapidly at the lyrics he found surrounding him. Stunned that they coined the way he existed nowadays – for her.

_And I came here to talk…_

_ I think you should know._

Draco closed his eyes and thought of countless moments over the years he opened himself to her, bit by bit. Even after she knew all of him, and him of her, they still talked.

_And anyone who tried to deny you…_

_ must be out of their mind._

Draco_had_ tried to deny her at a point, very early on. Just another pretty face, just another who pitied him. Tried denying her loveliness, her fixation on him, their strange connection.

It did not take Draco long to realise he couldn't deny her and he wasn't yet driven insane from battle.

_Honey you should know…_

_ that I could never go on without you._

This particular line deeply affected Draco in the simplest phrasing possible. _She was _the reason why he had been trying so hard… so hard for the past eight years of his life. He needed her like his lungs needed to breathe, like his stomach needed to eat, like his body needed to sleep.

_Green eyes…_

_ green eyes._

Draco stirred slightly in his invisibility. For the first time in the entire song, this man was wrong in all his rightness.

_Oh oh oh ohh…_

Ginny's eyes were brown.


End file.
